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Bowie General > Images Vol. 01

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homebrewPosted at 2024-11-16 15:55:34(2 wks ago) (Bowie General / Images Vol. 01)


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Way back in the beginnings of the internet what could possibly be called the first social network was known as Newsgroups or Usenet. Message boards arranged in groups that attracted folks who would join and discuss everything from agriculture to zen Buddhism. One such group was alt.fan.david-bowie.

In that group you would have run into a user named Jamie Soule aka aladInsaNE. Jamie wrote a series of articles that he called "Images" about our hero, David Bowie. I found them fascinating, sometimes infuriating, occasionally confusing and ultimately interesting enough to have saved them all (at least all that I could track down). Since traffic around here has slowed I thought I would start re-posting them for shits and giggles.

I have made no attempt to alter the formatting or edit in any way.

This is Images Vol. 01

--------

A short time ago I was discussing something that a friend stated she
felt about Bowie, and that was that she felt he was ashamed of his
middle class upbringing. I will admit that I am no expert on the
subject, only having learned about this class system from what she told
me, and an employee of mine who is from London originally. Her argument
was that he disguises parts of his past and many times he accent is
"faked" to be that of a higher class Englishman. I have to take her at
her word on the accent as she is British and although a times I can hear
a difference in them, I could not tell their origins or the difference
between upper, lower or I believe they call it the "working" class. I
had never thought of this before and I did at first disagree because why
would Bowie care about class distinction when he is one of the
wealthiest entertainers in the world, worth an estimated 975 million in
the year 2000, and he no longer resides in Britain as of 1976. She did
have a valid point though when she reiterated his re writing of his
past. That is one thing Bowie has done and continues to do to this day.
He has gone from character to character, the professional actor who uses
his public life as his stage to portray what he wishes his audience to
believe. David Bowie is a puzzle that mixes fact with fantasy in each of
his self created personas. What is real and what is fabricated. We may
have never seen the so called "real" David Bowie and in the vast
personalities of the characters he created there may not be a "real"
Bowie anymore. As far as the "real" person, well, he may now only be a
small fragment intertwined with the self created fantasy of an invented
personality that we know and believe to be the actual David Bowie.
Trying to sort out what is real and what is fabricated either by the
media or Bowie himself is not an easy task as both are quite unreliable.
The media often writes stories which are far from accurate, although
they are not to blame all the time. The media becomes unwilling victims
to the very source of their information which quite often is Bowie
himself. I wonder sometimes how after all of these years the press still
laps up every word out of Bowie's mouth and dutifully reports it as
fact. Why haven't they learned by this time that Bowie is a classic
manipulator when it comes to the media and he has a solid reputation of
either bending, or going as far as inventing, the truth. You would think
that they would at least check their facts before printing a news
article but they don't. It is no wonder that people can't understand
Bowie if they rely on the accuracy of the media. I remember a classic
Bowie move sometime around 1988. I opened the news paper one day and in
the Entertainment section there was a picture of Bowie grinning ear to
ear with his arm around Melissa Hurley who was a dancer on the Glass
Spider Tour. The caption under the photo read, "BOWIE WEDS." The
accompanying article of several lines stated that Bowie had married
Melissa Hurley in a brief ceremony the previous day. It was not true.
Nice one Dave. It is difficult to really know when the characters Bowie
invented actually started. If one looks back to the late sixties some
truths can be sifted out but his childhood is up to speculation and I
have read various accounts which all claim to be true. The best one can
do is attempt to find what is fairly common between these accounts and
those are probably as close to the truth as you will likely get. This
method has revealed a number of things about how Bowie was influenced
while growing up. Bowie's adolescence seemed no worse, or better
perhaps, that most. He was much closer to his father and his half
brother Terry than he was to his mother although the relationship to his
mother improved drastically in the eighties. He was asked in 1975 about
the relationship with his mother in a live interview on The Dick Cavett
Show and it seemed that he was blind sided by the question and he looked
terribly uncomfortable that Cavett asked it. With an embarrassed look on
his face his reply was, "We have an understanding." Cavett changed the
line of questioning. Bowie admired his father as a role model and he
greatly respected his advice. He used this advice even when it came to
his career as he would often make his manager at the time, Kenneth Pitt,
get his father's approval on various business matters. His fathers death
from pneumonia in 1968 was particularly hard on Bowie. It was his older
half brother Terry however that had the most impact on David. His
influence can't be underestimated, going so far as to say that Terry is
the sole reason that Bowie took the direction he did in life and became
the artist he is. The "Alien" personality Bowie has been described as
did not develop when he was fourteen years old, however it is safe to
say the the physical look for this personality did. The "outer space"
look came when a schoolmate named George Underwood beat Bowie up rather
severely and caused permanent damage to his eye. This changed Bowie's
appearance permanently and he spent eight months away from school. While
away from school Bowie also made a permanent change which was a result
of Terry's influence. During this period David and Terry spent the time
together. Terry picked out books for David to read. It was through Terry
that Bowie discovered the writings of Jack Keroac and William S
Burroughs who both had an influence on his later work. A portion of
Bowie's writing style can be directly attributed to the style invented
by Burroughs. In addition to this, with Terry's assistance, Bowie
obtained an education on the arts, music, foreign culture and Buddhism
which he later adopted for a period. It is a certainty that these eight
months changed Bowie for the rest of his life, however the truth
concerning his relationship and behaviour towards Terry did not always
co-incide with Bowie's version. Their relationship was not exactly the
way Bowie painted it to be for the media. Bowie has stated many times
how important an influence Terry was. He said in one interview, "It was
Terry who started everything for me." He has described their
relationship as "extremely close" and said how much he admired his
brother and considered him a mentor. Bowie's feelings about his brother
had to have run deep in order to have penned the lyrics found on THe
Bewlay Brothers, which in my opinion are as profound as anything I have
ever read. I do not think that too many Bowie fans would argue that
point. The personality Bowie showed to the media right into the eighties
was a caring younger brother. Terry, who was now living in a psychiatric
hospital, had seen David only once between 1975 and 1985 and that was
after his second suicide attempt in 1982. Bowie had broken a promise to
financially support his brother in a decent care facility as well as a
commitment to visit him. The visit in 1982 was prompted after one of
Bowie's aunts spouted off to the media about the lack of support Bowie
gave to his family, naming his mother Peggy and Terry especially. His
mother did say that he bought her an expensive fur coat adding that on
her pension she could not afford to go anywhere to wear it. After this
appeared in the media Bowie made good on his promise. Terry was
successful in ending his own life in 1985 and although Bowie still
remarks on their closeness he did not attend the funeral. I am aware
that some people are not emotionally able to deal with funerals but this
is not the truth in Bowie's case as he did attend Marc Bolan's. It is
surprising that he did not attend his brother's though or Mick Ronson's.
Bowie has said that he fell into the music industry, " Quite by
accident," and "Only to make some cash." He has insisted that he
graduated from art school and his talent is in painting, with music
really nothing more that a sideline. The art school graduate is another
of Bowie's inventions. Bromley Technical is not what one would qualify
as an "art" school although Bowie did study art along with woodworking
and he worked for six months in an advertising agency as a commercial
artist. This however does not qualify one to be a "painter" as he quit
this job to pursue music as a career. Bowie the painter and art critic
did not emerge until much later. This character Bowie maintains came
from a family who was, "Involved in the theatre," which alluded of
course to the talent which ran through the family. It was Bowie's father
actually who was involved in the theatre, but not in a way Bowie would
have you believe and the story does not involve any wealth of talent
coming from the Jones family. His fathers first wife was the daughter of
an Irish circus clown and an Italian acrobat. She was a singer who
accompanied herself on piano in nightclubs under the name of The
Viennese Nightingale. Her real name was Hilda. Jones took the better
part of a three thousand pound inheritance, quite a sum in 1933, and
financed a touring review called 11:30 p.m. Saturday Night. This revue
of course starred Hilda. The touring revue lasted all of two weeks
before closing for good. Jones bought a bar with the remainder of the
money which also turned into something of a disaster as well. So much
for this character of Bowie's coming from a rich theatrical background.
David Bowie signs a five year management deal on April 25, 1967 with
Kenneth Pitt. This period of Bowie's life seems to be relatively free of
any self invented personalities. Bowie it seems was quite content with
being himself during this period up until 1971. Artistically he had
grown in many ways. He was writing music and had a respectable number of
recordings to his name including Space Oddity. He had overseen his
Beckenham Arts Lab, experimented with mime under the renowned Lindsay
Kemp as well as done a few acting parts including the Luv Ice Cream
television commercial. Money did not seem to be much of a problem as
Kemp seemed quite willing to finance Bowie although they did not agree
on which direction Bowie should take his music and this eventually
became a problem. In the late sixties Eastern Religions were all the
rage. The Beatles had taken a well publicized trip to a spiritual
retreat in India. Books by a self proclaimed Tibetan monk named Lobsang
Rampa would sell as soon as they hit the shelves. The writings by gurus
such as Carlos Castaneda, who were spiritually heightened my the
ingesting of the Mexican Shaman's sacred psylociben mushrooms were hot
sellers too. Spiritual awareness from sources other than the mainstream
religions was "hip." Bowie was studying Buddhism, another religious fad
of the day for most, however to Bowie it was not a social statement. He
was quite serious about it. The study of Buddhism was not done by a
Bowie creation to attract attention. It was a serious interest kindled
by Terry and further fuelled by Tony Visconti. Bowie was studying under
a Tibetan monk named Youngdong Rimpoche. Songs such as Karma Man
reflected his belief and Bowie has stated that he spent upwards of
eighteen months in a Scottish monastery and according to Pitt this is
quite possible as he lost touch with Bowie, on and off over the same
time period. Bowie has said he came close to taking his novice vows and
shaving his head, an act which he was convinced not to do by Lindsay
Kemp. True to form though, often the truth is just not quite enough, so
Bowie tends to add a little flair to a story. Bowie has said that during
this period he was living on two simple meals a day and sleeping upright
in a wooden box. Those close to David at the time find this to be
pushing things a little. Bowie, it seems to me anyway by the many
interviews I have read over the last three decades, takes almost all of
the credit for the creation of his characters. He is always ready to
explain how he invented them and how he "killed them off" when it was
time to change into the next costume and assume the next role. Only a
fool would deny Bowie's creativity, his ability to set a trend and his
ability to lead. I am not taking any of this away from Bowie however the
reality is that he had a lot of input along the way from others who do
not get the credit they deserve. In a few circumstances they had far
more to do with the creation of certain personalities than Bowie did.
This is evident in the early seventies. Up until now it was fairly easy
to separate what was Bowie and what was an invention of his. This line
however started to become quite blurred in 1970. This is the same year
in which two people became part of David Bowie's life and whose combined
influences on him changed him forever. This was the year that Bowie
married Angela Barnett and the year he met Tony Defries who would later
become his manager. Looking at Bowie's life so far one could say that it
was fairly tame. Many give Bowie credit for being outrageous but it is
easy to see that he really, at least up until now, was not. The
outrageousness came into his life actually. It was brought by both
Angela and Defries and at times their ideas dwarfed Bowie. One thing for
sure was, the circus was about to begin. A good indication as to what
Bowie's new wife would be contributing to his various images was felt
around the end of 1970 shortly before the release of The Man Who Sold
The World. David at first protested but was convinced enough by Angela
to be photographed in the new dress she purchased for him when she
explained that, "It was after all, a man's dress." This move caused the
cover to be rejected by Mercury Records for the North American market.
Angela was probably unaware at the time but the character that she
created wearing a dress and posing with a deck of cards on a lounge
would be branded a "Transvestite" in America. Unfortunately no radio
station in America was prepared at the time to broadcast any record made
by "one of those." On the first day of August 1971 Tony Defries formally
enters Bowie's life with a signed management contract. Defries would
almost immediately contribute to the invented Bowie with a suggestion
that would haunt Bowie for decades to come. Defries himself is viewed by
many Bowie fans as a character himself. The character that many Bowie
fans pin on him is that of a blood sucking leach who took advantage of
Bowie and did nothing more than to rob him blind. I do not share this
opinion and I believe that those fans who view Defries this way do not
understand the situation at the time and have failed to properly assess
the situation Bowie was in. Many of these fans are upset because Bowie
got a raw deal. Few stop to realize that they owe Defries because there
is a good chance that if he did not enter the picture they probably
never would have heard the music of David Bowie, as his career would
have ended before the release of Ziggy Stardust. People are too busy
condemning Defries to see what he did that was in Bowie's favour. He
pulled off nothing short of a miracle. Tony Defries is entitled to a
large percentage of the credit for the development of the characters
Bowie became for the next four to five years. It is important to take a
close look at what actually happened over this period to get a proper
understanding of the extent to which Defries' affected Bowie's life. It
is worth noting that it was not Defries who was soliciting Bowie to
become his client, it was in fact the other way around and Bowie had a
reason for taking this action. It only requires a brief look at Bowie's
career under the management of Kenneth Pitt to come to the same
realization which Bowie did at the time. Except on a few occasions his
career had not blossomed under Pitt and his latest release, The Man Who
Sold The World, was yet another dismal failure at attracting a large
enough audience to help Bowie's career. Bowie went to the States on a
promotional tour to support the release of the album and to visit the
top brass at Mercury. The trip was also designed so Bowie had the
opportunity to introduce himself to the executives from the other major
record labels as well. The fact remained though that Bowie was unlikely
to succeed with Pitt at the helm and to Bowie this was painfully
obvious. There was no choice, either he find a new manager or stay where
he was and fade into oblivion. HIs career at this point was close to
being over. To those who think that Defries harmed Bowie have no valid
argument until they can find another set of answers to these questions,
and I have yet to see any. Your personal feelings on the contract and
the percentage splits involved are not relevant in this case as the
question is not if the terms of the contract are fair. The question is
if Defries saved Bowie's career. As I have already said it was Bowie who
initially made contact with Defries. The first question that comes to
mind is why Bowie, with all of his talent, even needed to have a
manager. He did quite well on his own from 1976 onward. The answer to
that is simple. First of all Bowie wound never have made it on is own
because it takes money to finance a career in the music industry and to
put it bluntly Bowie had none. He owed Ken Pitt. In all fairness though
Bowie did try once to manage himself before this and the effort was
financed by a two hundred pound loan he got from Pitt. The attempt
failed and there would be no more loans again with which to try.
Although having been a recording artist for some time Bowie lacked the
business experience and the contacts needed within the industry as well
to make a go of it on his own. One may wonder why Bowie was focused on
obtaining the services of Defries and where all of the other possible
investors were at this time? Logic dictates that with the size of the
recording industry at the time in England there should have been several
management organizations willing to have David Bowie under contract?
Usually a bidding war between labels arises when an artist becomes
available to sign. The answer here is a straight matter of common
business sense and has to do with Bowie's worth as a recording artist to
any major label. Strictly speaking Bowie was not worth signing for
several reasons. Based on his past history there was no reason to
believe that there should ever be an expectation of any profit generated
through his sales. The proof of this is It is true that the last album
made it into the top ten in several American cities but Bowie's albums
were in no way consistent enough sellers to warrant a financial
commitment. There was no shortage of bands around who would be worth
taking a risk on. There was also the general consensus that if he hadn't
made it by now, the chances are he never would. There was a couple of
more factors here as well which would further dissuade a label from
signing Bowie. He was still under contract to deliver one more album to
Mercury meaning that someone would have to buy out the remainder of
Bowie's contract valued at over $17,000.00. To put this all in
perspective the scenario was this. To retain Bowie on their roster of
artists a label would first be required to pay Mercury Records the tidy
sum of $17,884.41 to get David released from his obligations and in all
probability have to pay something to Kenneth Pitt. Bowie would have to
be paid something when he signed on as well as retainers periodically to
cover his daily expenses. The costs involved for the recording and
manufacturing of Bowie's first recording would have to be paid up front.
With all this done there still remained the costs to market the product
and there were no guarantees that there would be sufficient airplay, or
even a market, to sell enough records to recoup the initial costs, let
alone make a profit. There was no one willing to spend this kind of
money on an artist who had never once made any profit for his management
company, instead putting them into debt. Bowie was nothing more than a
liability and for this reason no one was interested in signing him. If
Bowie had no label to finance him that meant the end. Tony Defries was
the ONLY ONE willing to take a chance and invest in Bowie so I find it
difficult to understand why he is despised when in fact he rescued
Bowie's career when no one else would. How many Bowie fans would have
felt sorry for Defries if David failed to make it and he lost all of his
investment? I thought so, and that is pretty one sided thinking. Just
two more quick things I wish to add. I am aware of the details of
Bowie's contracts he signed with Defries, MainMan, Gem and Chrysalis and
so I know that the percentages weighed heavily on the side of Defries.
One has to remember that Bowie was an extremely HIGH RISK investment and
the probability was quite high that Defries would lose his money. I
think it is fair, and it is standard business practice when it comes to
investing, that a high risk investment demands a higher rate of return
and Bowie would not have suffered any drastic financial loss if the
venture failed. It was Defries, not Bowie, who took on the risk. The
last thing is that no one FORCED Bowie to sign the contract, he could
have walked away. On May 28th, 1971 Bowie enters the role of a father
when his son is born. Over the period of the making of The Man Who Sold
The World and Hunky Dory Bowie the musician experimented with what many
musicians experiment with having been smoking a considerable amount of
hash and he admittedly tried heroin. The heroin was tried mostly to say
he had done it and he never tried it again as it scared him enough that
he warned others against even trying. Visconti stated that The Man Who
Sold The World is more of a Ronson/Visconti effort than one by Bowie as
they did almost all of the final mixing and the finishing touches needed
before it was given to the record company. Bowie was difficult to get
hold of to drag into the studio and Visconti blames this on smoking too
much dope. Thankfully, for Visconti's sake anyway, this was a short
lived experiment. On December 17, 1971, RCA, which is now his new label
courtesy of Defries, releases Hunky Dory. This is truly one of Bowie's
most brilliant albums but that was not realized at the time of its
release. Bowie had started to record Hunky Dory in July and there was
studio time booked right through until mid January of 1972. The reason
for this is that they were also laying down the tracks for The Rise And
Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars at the same time. Ziggy
was scheduled for release in the early summer of 1972. The characters
were also scheduled for release. The first one was quite unique as it
did not come into being by Bowie's hand alone, it was a group effort. To
be continued.........


""I don't begrudge any artist for finding an audience"
- David Bowie abt. 1987
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